


Ginger Shadow

by vaderina



Series: Prompt Fills [28]
Category: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (Movies)
Genre: Cat!Newt, M/M, Mistaken Identity, Newt has a bad morning, Percival has a ginger shadow
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-21
Updated: 2018-08-21
Packaged: 2019-06-30 15:04:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,650
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaderina/pseuds/vaderina
Summary: Newt, for what ever reason, has picked up the biggest fluffiest cat ever (think Norwegian Forest Cat) and it takes to just following Percival everywhere. The rest of MACUSA starts taking bets on when he'll tell Newt to get rid of the cat but no one really expected Percival to love cats so much. On the plus side those pesky mice in the evidence locker are suddenly gone.





	Ginger Shadow

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [姜黄色的影子](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15977396) by [Colcolcol](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Colcolcol/pseuds/Colcolcol)



There was a giant fluffy ginger cat in the middle of Percival’s living room and no Newt in sight. His coat was hanging on the door, his shoes were haphazardly thrown next to the shoe rack so he can’t have been out. However there was no noise anywhere in the apartment that normally accompanied him. Tentatively Percival edged around the cat whose tail swished as it sat. Nobody in the kitchen, the bathroom was empty, Percival had just come from the bedroom. The spare room - which he absolutely refused to call the creatures’ room - didn’t hold a single soul either. He returned to the living room where the cat had started washing its paw and shut the window that opened onto the fire escape.

“Newt?” Percival asked and felt foolish for it. But what he knew about the other man it wasn’t beyond the realms of reality that the cat was Newt. Opposite him the cat looked up with a pleased mrrrp and stood to wander closer and wind around Percival’s legs.

“Fuck.”

* * *

 

There wasn’t much time to do much, the few spells Percival knew to transform Newt back didn’t do much other than visibly irritate the cat. Resignedly Percival walked to the door and the cat obediently followed. If he didn’t love Newt just the way he was, odd accidents, learning mating dances and all then he quite possibly would have throttled him already. The two of them walking to MACUSA together wasn’t even the strangest thing to be seen on the streets that morning and nobody looked twice at a well groomed man stalking through the crowds while a large ginger cat trotted after him. Finally they got to the elevator and Red started their ascent up.

“I don’t know how you keep getting into such messes,” Percival grumbled.

“Sir?” Red asked.

“Sorry, I was talking to Newt,” Percival gestured down to his feet where the cat was sat. It looked at Red with disdained curiosity which was rather unlike Newt. But if he’d taken on some cat characteristics then Percival couldn’t really blame him, Red sometimes made shivers run down his back and not in a good way either.

Percival and Newt got off on their level and walked through the bullpen and headed straight into the private office each director of department is graciously given. The chair scraped on the wooden floor as Percival pulled it out and sat down with a barely suppressed sigh. He wrote a memo mouse to Smitherson, the Head of Curse Breaking and watched the paper mouse scuttle towards the warren. It was almost in the hole when a flash of ginger hurtled out from behind the desk and pounced. There was a crunch of paper, a squeak of the magic animating the memo mouse giving out and Percival stared at Newt who now had a limp memo mouse in his mouth. His veins turned icy at the sight. Thoughts of a curse slowly eating away at Newt’s humanity only to leave him as a cat raced through his mind. With firm resolution he rewrote the memo, charmed it the highest priority and released it next to the hole in the wall. Newt still launched for it and scrabbled around with a paw down the hole to reach it to no avail. In a huff he turned his back on where the memo mouse had disappeared and stalked towards the first one instead.

Word spread about Newt’s condition very quickly after that. Within minutes Smitherson had appeared at his door and they set to work trying to identify the curse that locked Newt in a cat’s body. Aurors came and went too, offering their help where they could. Slowly Percival, Smitherson and Newt migrated out of his office and into the bullpen so more people could work together. They were losing hope the more their ideas were proven to be wrong. Even Wilson from Transfiguration Control had come upstairs in case she could help. But nothing worked. Newt sat on a clears table and was happily rolling around and dozing while various spells were discussed around him.

The low buzz of conversation died out slowly in the room. It started slowly and worked its way up to the core group crowded around the table. They looked up at the sudden oppressive silence. Percival straightened up and turned. His face blanched.

“Why did you lock me out onto the fire escape you arse?” Newt looked furious. His feet were sock clad, trousers and shirt in place but hair rumpled, no sign of a tie, suspenders or his usual coat. In fact he looked like he gave up half way through getting ready for the day. Opposite him Percival looked back at the cat then back at Newt.

“Uh.” It was possibly the first time any auror had seen their boss speechless, eyes wide. If he’d had ear like a dog they would have been pressed back flat against his skull and his tail would have wagged low in apologetic hope.

“I couldn’t apparate because Mrs. Robinson from next door was watering her plants. So I had to climb down the muggle way, only to get up to our front door and find you’d locked me out. By then Mrs. Robinson was waiting for me and I had to have tea with her and listen to her gleeful sympathy before she walked me downstairs to catch a taxi. A taxi Percival. I didn’t have a cent on me let alone a taxi fare so I had to obliviate the poor chap and then walk through MACUSA in my socks to find you,” Newt’s rant climbed higher and higher and Percival wavered between going to him to apologise and running to Seraphina’s office for a sudden and urgent meeting. He wouldn’t have called it hiding but others might have disagreed. Newt’s eyes moved from his face to behind him and his annoyance turned into fury.

“Just what are you doing with Ethel?!”

The aurors moved as one away from the table as Newt stalked around Percival and scooped the cat up into his arms.

“Ethel?” Percival asked weakly. Newt stared him down until an answer was pulled from Percival in a mumble. “We thought that was you.”

It was obvious Newt expected many answers but not that. He drew his head back and blinked in surprise before looking down at Ethel.

“Wait,” he said, “you thought Ethel, a female cat, was me? Did you all think this?” He looked around at the rest of the room. Nobody dared meet his eyes. “Why would I be a cat? Why would I be female?”

After a few awkward moments of silence Percival mumbled again.

“We didn’t think to check gender in all that fluff.”

The disbelieving snort Newt gave out was rather undignified. Carefully he set Ethel down on the floor and the two of them stalked closer to Percival. He tipped his bashful partner’s face up with a hand under his chin and pecked him on the lips.

“You’re unbelievable. I told you last night when you got home from work that we have a new addition so don’t be alarmed. I wasn’t sure if you’d heard me as you were already half asleep. I found Ethel’s owner stuffing her in a bag by the Hudson because she couldn’t produce kittens.”

“Oh,” Percival breathed and his blush began to fade.

“Now take me home so I can finish getting dressed and look a little more presentable.”

Together they left, Ethel in tow. What nobody expected was upon their return Ethel was like a shadow to Percival. Wherever he went she followed. People began to talk, wondering why he put up with the constant reminder of his foolish stupidity. Soon people were taking bets on when he’d get rid of the cat. Or at least ask Newt to rehome the thing. A few people in the department even went as far as saying they’d happily take Ethel home should Percival not want her. But not once did Percival look bothered about his ginger shadow. It soon became the norm that wherever Percival went Ethel went too. What was even stranger was the amount of work Percival was suddenly being summed to in the evidence locker. Even the aurors began to note how frequently he was asked to go down there and nobody could figure it out.

It was one lunch time that all the aurors were huddled together with those who worked in the evidence locker and they were hellbent on getting answers.

“We don’t really need Director Graves down there,” Anders was saying around a mouthful of salad, “in fact we hate having his terrifying frown around. But his cat, she’s been keeping the rogue memo mice population at bay. In fact I think we only have a few feral families of them left behind the counterfeit cabinet. She’s a heck of a hunter but we didn’t know how else to entice her down to us.”

Murmurs of agreement went up around the table. It did take a while for every auror to grow accustomed to Percival’s own brand of facial expressions. The happy frown, the displeased frown and zoning out frown all looked very similar to the uninitiated. Their conversation fell to a guilty hush when Ethel jumped up on the table in the hopes of scraps and scritches. Nobody dared move as Percival apologetically leaned between two aurors and scooped her off the table.

“How many times do I have to tell you Ethel? You can’t jump on every table at work for treats. Newt tells me off enough at home for it, you don’t have to embarrass me like this here too.”

The aurors shared a look. It was pretty evident that the answer to their bet was never. Percival was not going to be giving up on Ethel any time soon.

**Author's Note:**

> Making my way through prompts like a snail on ketamine over on tumblr - @ladyoftheshrimp


End file.
